Automatic and transparent document archiving

ABSTRACT

An automatic archiving system that makes document archiving largely transparent to the user. In one embodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of office equipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an office local area network (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a fax machine, and a document management workstation. Whenever, a document is copied, printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by the document management workstation without further user intervention. A single user command results in the document being copied and archived, printed and archived, or faxed and archived.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/453,859, filed on Jun. 2, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,629 which isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/347,953, filed onJul. 6, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,086, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/754,721, filed on Nov. 21, 1996, nowU.S. Pat. No. 5,978,477, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference for all purposes.

STATEMENT OF RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to the subject matter of theapplication titled, “DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” co-assigned with thepresent application and filed on Nov. 21, 1996, as U.S. application Ser.No. 08/754,725, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,908,issued On Apr. 13, 1999. Thecontents of the “DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” application are hereinincorporated by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a document management system and moreparticularly to providing automatic archiving to standard officeequipment.

With the rapid development of storage system technology, the cost ofstoring an image of a sheet of paper on digital media has become lessthan the cost of printing and storing the sheet of paper itself. Digitaldocument storage also facilitates later electronic search and retrievaland raises the possibility of automatic filing of documents.

Until now, systematic digital document storage has required userdiscipline to scan in each and every document for the express purpose ofarchiving. Work has been done to make stand-alone scanners lessexpensive, easier to use, and more compact. However, the user muststill 1) remember that a document should be scanned, 2) locate ascanner, 3) bring the document to the scanner, and 4) operate thescanner. However, scanning occurs constantly in the office environmentin the contexts of copying and faxing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an automatic archiving system that makesdocument archiving largely transparent to the user. In one embodiment,documents scanned in or printed during the course of office equipmentoperation are automatically archived. For example, an office local areanetwork (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine,and a document management workstation. Whenever, a document is copied,printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by the documentmanagement workstation without further user intervention. A single usercommand results in the document being copied and archived, printed andarchived, or faxed and archived.

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a method forprocessing document images includes steps of receiving a single userinput command and performing certain steps in response to the singleuser input command. The steps include scanning a document image tocollect image data, printing the document image based on the image data,and sending the image data to an archiving system for storage.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a method forprinting and archiving documents includes steps of receiving a singleuser command requesting that a document be printed, printing thedocument in response to the single user command, and archiving imagedata representing the document in response to the single user command.

In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, a method forarchiving documents to be faxed includes steps of receiving a singleuser command indicating that a document is to be faxed, scanning thedocument to be faxed in response to the single user command,transmitting first image data representing the document as scanned to aremote location via a public telephone network, and archiving, inresponse to the single user command, second image data representing thedocument as scanned in the scanning step.

In accordance with a fourth aspect of the invention, a computerinstallation includes a digital copier that scans in documents to becopied, a printer that prints documents, a computer system controlling along-term storage medium, and a network interconnecting the digitalcopier, the printer, and the computer system. The digital copier relaysimage data representing the documents to be copied to the computersystem for storage on the long-term storage medium. The printer, or aprinter server controlling the printer, or a computer system initiatinga command to print relays image data representing printed documents tothe computer system for storage on the long-term storage medium.

In accordance with a fifth aspect of the invention, a digital copierincludes a scanner that generates image data representing a document tobe copied, an image processing unit that processes the image data tocorrect imaging errors introduced by the scan engine, a printer thatcopies the document responsive to the image data as processed by theimage processing unit, and an image data tap that relays the image datato a storage system for archiving.

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the inventionsherein may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of thespecification and the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an office machine network implementing automatic documentarchiving in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a portion of a copier control interface.

FIG. 3 depicts a top-level diagram of a digital copier implementingautomatic document archiving in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 depicts alternative signals usable for extracting horizontalsynchronization data from a digital copier in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts a printer interface.

FIG. 6 depicts a facsimile machine interface.

FIG. 7 depicts a facsimile machine modified for automatic archiving inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 depicts a computer system usable for implementing elements of thepresent invention.

FIG. 9 depicts a software architecture for operating a document imagedatabase in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Overall Architecture For Automatic Archiving

FIG. 1 depicts an office machine network implementing automatic documentarchiving in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Anetwork 100 may be implemented in any way, e.g., an Ethernet. Network100 interconnects a representative client system 102, a print server104, a special digital copier 106, a document management workstation108, and a special facsimile machine 110. Print server 104 controlsprinting on a representative printer 112 at the request of client system102 and relays document image data characterizing a document to documentmanagement workstation 108 for archiving. Digital copier 106 copiesdocuments and transmits image data obtained during the course of copyingto document management workstation 108 for archiving. Similarly,facsimile machine 110 captures image data during the course of sendingand receiving documents and transmits the image data to documentmanagement workstation 108 for archiving. Document managementworkstation 108 collects the document image data collected from all ofthe office equipment and maintains an archive on a disk storage unit114. Client system 102 may browse this archive.

The configuration of network 100 is of course only representative. Forexample, automatic archiving of documents may be implemented with onlyone or two types of office machine instead of the depicted types. Also,functionality of one or more units shown in FIG. 1 may be combined intothe same unit or divided among many units.

Automatic Archiving of Copied Documents

In accordance with the present invention, digital copier 106transparently archives documents that are copied. FIG. 2 depicts asimplified representation of a portion of a copier control interface 200usable with digital copier 106. Copier control interface 200 includes anumeric keypad 202, an Enter key 204, and a Copy/Start key 206. Copiercontrol interface 200 may be implemented using, e.g., a touch pad, touchscreen, mechanical buttons, etc. Controls for paper size, copy darkness,copy contrast, paper size, and magnification/reduction ratio are notimportant to the present invention and are thus omitted.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, activationof Copy/Start key 206 is sufficient to initiate both copying of adocument and archiving of an image of the document. The user positionsthe document, e.g., in a document feeder (not shown), and then enters apersonal access code on numeric keypad 202 finishing access code entryby depressing Enter key 204. Depressing Copy/Start key 206 represents asingle user command that is interpreted by digital copier 106 to requestboth copying and archiving. Thus by copying, the user achieves bothcopying and archiving. In one embodiment, the user may enter a lock-outcode to inhibit archiving, for instance, for privacy-protectionpurposes.

Details of the hardware for the copying and archiving processes will bemade clearer with reference to FIGS. 3-5.

FIG. 3 depicts a top-level diagram of digital copier 106 implementingautomatic document archiving in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. Digital copier 106 includes a scanner engine 302, aprint engine 304, a controller 306, a touch screen 308, and an internaldisk storage unit 310. Controller 306 includes a DRAM unit 312, an LZimage compressor 314, a CPU 316, an IDE controller 318, a SCSIcontroller 320, and a network interface 321. A bus 323 interconnects thecontroller elements. Scanner engine 302 includes a scanner 302A and animage processing unit 302B. A video bus 324 interconnects scanner engine302 and print engine 304. An image data tap 326 provides controller 306with access to image data transferred over video bus 324. Controller 306also takes advantage of an HSYNC signal 406 and a VSYNC signal 410generated within print engine 304.

Digital copier 106 accepts a document 328 and prints a copy 330 upondepression of Start/Copy key 206. Scanner 302A captures an image ofdocument 328 and transmits the image to image processing unit 302B.Image processing unit 302B operates to remove distortion inherent in thescanning process. The output of the image processing unit is preferablyin a format where 8 bits represent the grey scale level of a pixel,there are 4380 active pixels per line, and there are 3380 active linesper frame or document page. There is a 10 pixel blanking period beforeand after each active line, making the total number of pixels per line,4400. Similarly, there is a 10 line blanking period before and afterevery frame, making the total number of lines in a frame 3400. Ofcourse, these parameters are only design choices.

This pixel data is forwarded from image processing unit 302B to printengine 304 for printing. The data rate over video bus 324 is preferably20 MHz. Controller 306 monitors video bus 324 via image data tap 326 toreceive the same pixel data. Although, it would be possible to monitorthe pixel data prior to image processing unit 302B, the advantage tomonitoring on video bus 324 is that image processing unit 302B istightly coupled to scanner 302A and can monitor and correct for errorsinherent in the scanning process.

Controller 306 performs overall control functions for digital copier 106including the archiving functions. CPU 316, an Intel 80960 CFmicrocontroller, operates the control program for the operation ofdigital copier 106. Image data is often transferred into controller 306at a faster rate via image data tap 326 than the image data can bearchived. Accordingly, DRAM unit 312, preferably incorporating 8 to 72MB of DRAM, acts as a buffer for image data. This allows printing of thecopy to continue without interruption by the archiving process.

To save on storage space and facilitate faster data transfer acrossnetwork 100, LZ image compressor 314 may compress the image data priorto archiving in accordance with the Lempel-Ziv image compression format.Of course, any image compression format may be chosen in accordance withthe invention. With each block of image data to be archived, controller306 incorporates the user ID data received from touch screen 308.

The actual archiving of document images may occur either locally orremotely. Controller 306 may maintain the archive on disk storage unit310, in which case the image data will be transferred via IDE controller318. The archive may also be maintained either internally or externallyon SCSI drives to which image data is transferred via SCSI controller320. Note, that if the archive is maintained on disk storage unit 310,or a disk drive accessible via SCSI controller 320, digital copier 106will absorb some or all of the functionality of document managementworkstation 108. If the archive is maintained on document managementworkstation 108, network interface 321 sends the image data there vianetwork 100 along with the user ID data for each particular document.Typically, LZ image compressor 314 is used in applications wheredocuments are archived locally as opposed to remotely.

FIG. 4 depicts signals transferred over video bus 324 and image data tap326 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. A pixeldata line 327 carries the image data generated by image processing unit302B in a format to drive a laser diode input port 402 of print engine304. Each pixel includes 8 bits.

Print engine 304 operates in accordance with well-known laser xerographyprinciples and incorporates a laser diode that varies in illuminationintensity responsive to the document image to be printed. The 8 bitsinput to laser diode input port 402 include 3 bits modulating theintensity of illumination of the laser diode and 5 bits modulating thewidth of illumination pulses. These pixels transfer over a pixel dataline 327 at a 20 MHz rate. In the preferred embodiment, the image datapresented at laser diode input port 402 is directly relayed tocontroller 306 via image data tap 326.

The beam output of the laser diode passes through a system of lens andmirrors that generates the horizontal scanning action to sweep the beamover a rotating xerographic drum, thereby recreating the document imageas a charge pattern on the drum. Typically, the rotation of a polygonalmirror tracks the scanning action. To assure the highest quality ofreproduction, printing requires careful synchronization between theconstituent parts of the scanner 302A, image processing unit 302B andthe Print Engine 304. This synchronization is signaled using thehorizontal and vertical video synchronization signals, lines 404, 406,408, and 410. All of these signals are interrelated in terms ofsynchronization to the motion inherent in the rotating polygonal mirrorwhich provides faster scanning in the print engine, and in terms of thescanner 302A. In some embodiments, the timing may be sourced by theprint engine 304, and circuitry in image processing unit 302B is phaselocked to that timing. In an alternate embodiment, image processing unit302B may provide the master timing to the print engine 304, whichsubsequently phase locks or otherwise synchronizes its mechanical motionto these source signals. This embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 4. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize the various trade offs in productdesign originating from alternative selections of the master referencetiming sources used for generating the synchronization signals in thesystem of FIG. 4, without losing the generality of obtaining access tothe video bus 324.

Horizontal synchronization signal (HSYNC) 406 for the image data may beobtained from print engine 304 in many ways. One technique is toposition an optically sensitive sensor at a point within the opticalsystem where the scanning action of the beam may be monitored. A pulseis generated every time the beam reaches an extremity of the scan.Depending on the particular design of the optical system, this pulserate may be a harmonic or subharmonic of the actual horizontalsynchronization rate.

Another technique is to attach an optical encoder to the motor thatrotates the polygonal mirror. By monitoring the motor operation in this,or some other way, horizontal synchronization signal 406 may be derived.It is also possible to derive horizontal synchronization signal 406 fromthe control signal which drives the motor.

A vertical synchronization control 408 also incorporates informationabout the scanning action of scanner 302A. To assure high qualityreproduction, the movement of paper through print engine 304 takes thisvertical synchronization control information into account. Verticalsynchronization signal 410 may be obtained from print engine 304 in avariety of ways. One way is to tap off an internal signal that gates anew sheet of paper to pass underneath the xerographic drum.

The horizontal and vertical synchronization signals 406 and 410 are usedto assure that only valid pixels are archived. Data indicating thenumber of lines on each page and the line length in pixels is alsoarchived with the pixels. Thus, when the document is retrieved forprinting later, printing of the document inherently takes advantage ofthe information present on vertical synchronization control 408 andhorizontal synchronization control 404, namely image position within apage, and more particularly, the size of paper printed upon.Furthermore, the document image has already been subject tosophisticated image processing by IPU 302B. The final printed documentis therefore a very high quality reproduction.

The present invention is however not restricted to capturing image datafor archiving at the output of an image processing system such as IPU302B. Whether or not such an image processing system is present, imagedata for archiving may be captured at the output of scanner 302A.

Automatic Archiving of Printed Documents

FIG. 5 depicts a simplified representation of a user interface screen500 for operating a printer. A user interface screen such as screen 500is generally displayed by client system 102 whenever the user requestsprinting of a document. A list 502 of options permits the user to selectwhether the full document is to be printed, only a specified range ofpages, or only text that has been highlighted using a pointing andselection device such as a mouse. If a range of pages is to bespecified, a field 504 is used to enter the range of page numbers. Afield 506 permits the user to specify a number of document copies to beprinted. A “current printer” field 508 identifies the printer that willbe used to print the document. Activation of a “Close” screen button 510dismisses user interface screen 500.

In the prior art, activation of a “Print” screen button 512 causes adocument to be printed. In accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention, activation of “Print” button 512 represents a single usercommand to both print and archive the document. Client system 102 sendsthe document to be printed to print server 104 which runs print spoolingsoftware for writing to printer 112. The print spooling softwaremaintains a queue of print jobs to run. The document may be sent toprint server 104 in any format, such as text, TIFF, GIF, postscript,etc. Printer 112 will typically accept postscript input but otherprinter configurations are also possible. If the format of transmissionby client system 102 is different from the format accepted by printer112, printer server 104 will also perform format conversion.

In accordance with the invention, each document handled by printspooling software is sent to document management workstation 108. Thedocument may be transmitted in either the format generated by clientsystem 102 or any format to which printer server 104 is able to convert.The document may be sent to document management workstation 108 withdata identifying the current user of client system 102. Thus, archivingbecomes an incidental consequence of the printing process. Previouslyprinted documents are retrievable.

Automatic Archiving of Faxed Documents

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified representation of a facsimile machine userinterface 600. A display screen 602 provides the user with prompts. Akeypad 604 allows for entry of a telephone number to which a document isto be faxed. Depression of a start button 606 causes a document to bescanned into a memory within a facsimile machine or, if a document hasalready been scanned into memory and a telephone number has beenentered, causes the document to be faxed to the entered telephonenumber. Depression of a stop button 608 causes faxing to cease. Inaccordance with the present invention, depression of start button 606 atthe appropriate time represents a single user command to both fax andarchive a document.

FIG. 7 depicts facsimile machine 110 modified for automatic archiving inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Facsimilemachine 110 incorporates a scanner 702 for scanning a document to befaxed and storing a binary pixel representation of the document in amemory (not shown) internal to scanner 702. A source coding unit 704compresses the gray scale pixel data in accordance with facsimiletransmission standard, e.g., Group III. A modem 706 modulates a carrierwith the compressed data output of source coding unit 704 in accordancewith the relevant facsimile transmission standard to generate amodulated signal to output on a telephone line 708.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, an imagedata tap 710 transmits the compressed data output of source coding unitto a network interface 712. Network interface 712 in turn sends thecompressed data output representing a document to document managementworkstation 108 for archiving. In an alternative embodiment, image datatap 710 is instead positioned at the output of scanner 702.

Optionally, the user enters a code number on keypad 604 to identifyhimself or herself. This information is also sent to document managementworkstation 108 to be stored with the faxed document. Alternatively, theidentity of the user of facsimile machine 110 is already known in someother way.

Thus, every document that is faxed is also archived without further userinput. This provides yet another source of document images for thearchive maintained by document management workstation 108.

Document Management Workstation

FIG. 8 depicts a computer system 810 usable for implementing any one ormore of client system 102, print server 104, or document managementworkstation 108 in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Computer system 810 includes bus 812 which interconnectsmajor subsystems such as central processor 814, system memory 816,input/output (I/O) controller 818, external device such as displayscreen 824 via display adapter 826, serial port 828, keyboard 830, fixeddisk drive 114 via a storage interface 832, a serial port 834, a CD ROMplayer 836, and a floppy disk drive 838. A mouse 840 may connect toserial port 828. A network interface 842 for connection to network 100may connect to serial port 834. CD ROM player 836 receives a CD ROM disk844. Floppy disk drive 838 receives a floppy disk 846. Many otherdevices or subsystems (not shown) may be connected in a similar manner.Also, it is not necessary for all of the devices shown in FIG. 8 to bepresent to practice the present invention, as discussed below. Thedevices and subsystems may be interconnected in different ways from thatshown in FIG. 8. The operation of a computer system such as that shownin FIG. 8 is readily known in the art and is not discussed in detail inthe present application. Source code to implement elements of thepresent invention may be operably disposed in system memory 816 orstored on storage media such as fixed disk 114, floppy disk 846, or CDROM 844.

FIG. 9 depicts a software architecture 900 for operating a documentimage database in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Preferably, the software architecture operates on documentmanagement workstation 108. Documents to be archived are received by aCFI (conversion of formats and indexing) module 902 from any one ofdigital copier 106, print server 104, or facsimile machine 110. CFImodule 902 converts the format of the received document to a desiredformat for storage. CFI module 902 may, e.g., receive the data in the 8bit pixel format discussed in reference to digital copier 106 along withsynchronization information useful for high quality reproduction. Thesedesired formats include, e.g., postscript, 8 dpi GIFF, 72 dpi GIFF, 400dpi TIFF, and plain text. Converting from a graphic format to plain textincludes the process of optical character recognition. CFI module 902also applies an indexing system to the documents to be archived. Forplain text documents, the index information generated for the documentfacilitates later full text searching. If the identity of the user isavailable, this will also form a part of the indexing information forthe document to facilitate later retrieval by the user.

For each document to be archived, a separate HTML document is generatedwith an iconic form of the images (8 dpi GIF) to be archived andkeywords from a text document that is stored. One set of HTML indexpages is maintained for each user. Each HTML index page in the setprovides a different view of the images in a user's database. Forexample, one page provides a sequential listing of every saved image,including the document icons. Another page provides a sequential listingof all the documents which shows an ASCII summary of each image withoutshowing the icons. CFI module 902 performs the necessary conversions.

An encryption module 904 optionally encrypts the document to be archivedand its HTML counterpart with an encryption key particular to the user.This way only the user and other authorized parties may retrieve theencrypted document. The encrypted documents are stored on disk storageunit 114.

An SRI module (search and retrieval interface) module 906 providesaccess to the document archive maintained on disk storage unit 114.Decryption system 908 is provided as an option for encrypted documents.SRI module 906 is implemented as an HTTP daemon operating on documentmanagement workstation 108. SRI module 906 is preferably the only searchand retrieval path to the document archive. This restricted form ofaccess allows log access information to be maintained. SRI module 906processes HTTP requests from client system 102 to browse HTML documentson disk storage unit 114, or to search and retrieve the archiveddocuments. Full text search is implemented with a WAIS engine or othersearch engine (e.g., VERIFY, EXCALIBUR, FULCRUM) implemented with SRImodule 906. Queries are entered by the user in an HTML form andtransmitted to the search engine using a CGI script running in SRImodule 906. An initial user request should incorporate a password toauthorize decryption by decryption system 908.

To facilitate user interaction with SRI module 906, client system 102preferably runs a Java-capable world wide web browser such as NetscapeNavigator obtainable from Netscape Communications of Mountain View,Calif. Java programs may be downloaded from SRI module 906 to performfunctions such as searching or display and printing of particulardocument formats.

Of course, the storage and retrieval architecture discussed above isonly representative. Application Ser. No. 08/754,725, entitled “DOCUMENTMANAGEMENT SYSTEM” includes many other applications of an automaticarchiving system.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims. Many such changes or modificationswill be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Forexample, digital copier 106 may also act as a printer for client system102. Also, the network 100 may include connections over a WAN or theInternet, allowing remote archiving and retrieval of documents. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense, the invention beinglimited only by the provided claims and their full scope of equivalents.

1. A method of storing information for a document, the methodcomprising: receiving at a device, via an input interface, a single userinput to initiate performance of a first function with respect to thedocument, a first representation of the document being available to thedevice for use in performing the first function; and responsive to thesingle user input, performing the first function at the device andstoring a second representation of the document in a memory available tothe device, the storing being performed without requiring further userinteraction through the input interface.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein performing the first function comprises printing the document.3. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the first function comprisesfaxing the document.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein performing thefirst function comprises generating a copy of the document.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 wherein: performing the first function comprisesscanning the document to generate electronic image data for the documentand using the electronic image data to perform the first function; andstoring a representation of the document comprises generating the secondrepresentation of the document for storage from the electronic imagedata.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the second representation of thedocument is stored in a memory that is remote from the device performingthe first function.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondrepresentation of the document is stored in a memory that is included inthe device performing the first function.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein storing the second representation of the document comprisesstoring the second representation of the document in encrypted form. 9.The method of claim 1 wherein storing the second representation of thedocument comprises storing the second representation of the document incompressed form.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing isperformed transparent to a user providing the single user input.
 11. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the input interface is provided by the device.12. A device comprising: an interface configured to receive a singleuser input to initiate performance of a first function with respect tothe document, a first representation of the document being available tothe device for use in performing the first function; and a functionengine configured to perform the first function responsive to the singleuser input; and a storage engine configured to store a secondrepresentation of the document in a memory available to the deviceresponsive to the single user input, the second representation of thedocument being stored in the memory without requiring further userinput.
 13. The device of claim 12 wherein the device comprises a printerand the first function comprises printing the document.
 14. The deviceof claim 12 wherein the device comprises a facsimile machine andperforming the first function comprises faxing the document.
 15. Thedevice of claim 12 wherein the device comprises a copier and performingthe first function comprises generating a copy of the document.
 16. Thedevice of claim 12 further comprising a scanner configured to generateelectronic image data for the document and wherein: the function engineis configured to perform the first function using the electronic imagedata to perform; and the second representation of the document isgenerated from the electronic image data.
 17. The device of claim 12wherein the second representation of the document is storing transparentto a user providing the single user input.
 18. The device of claim 12further comprising an input interface for providing the single userinput.
 19. A method of archiving information for a document, the methodcomprising: receiving, at a device, a single user input to initiateperformance of a first function with respect to the document, a firstrepresentation of the document being available to the device for use inperforming the first function; and responsive to the single user input,performing the first function at the device and archiving a secondelectronic representation of the document in a memory available to thedevice; wherein the archiving is performed without receiving any inputfrom the user other than the single user input.